Missing jogger's throat was slashed, autopsy shows

A missing Chicago Heights woman whose body was found in a south suburban forest preserve lake was beaten on the head and her throat was slashed, according to an autopsy Wednesday.

Alma Mendez, 39, of the 300 block of West 14th Place died of multiple injuries, physical assault and multiple incisions on her neck, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Mendez's relatives had reported her missing Sunday night after she did not return from a jog in the Sauk Trail Woods Forest Preserve near South Chicago Heights, a place where she ran almost daily. Searchers combed the woods until Tuesday afternoon, when her body was found floating near the bank of the lake, just yards from the jogging path.

On Wednesday, Cook County Forest Preserve police spokesman Steve Mayberry said the case had been classified as a homicide investigation, noting that Mendez suffered "blunt trauma to the head and a laceration to the throat."

Mayberry said there were no suspects. When asked whether police had identified any people of interest in connection with the slaying, he said: "I can't comment on that. The investigation is ongoing."

He said he did not know whether a weapon had been recovered or if investigators were looking for a specific kind of weapon. He said there was no indication of sexual assault.

Cook County sheriff's police are investigating with help from both forest preserve police and Chicago Heights police.

Several of Mendez's family members were called to the Markham Courthouse on Tuesday night to speak with detectives, her sister Maria Lopez, said Wednesday.

"We went last night to give more information about my sister," Lopez said. "They [detectives] did not give us a word; they said they did not want to give us false leads, that they were going to discuss the evidence this morning and take it from there."

Lopez did not elaborate on the questions they were asked, saying only that they pertained to "the way she was, the things she did."

Mendez had been under increasing stress in the months before her death. Her mother suffered a brain aneurysm, and she separated from her husband of 19 years within the last month.